Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/99

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 81 Such was the anxious diligence which was required CflAP. to guard the chastity of the gospel from the infectious ^^- breath of idolatry. The superstitious observances of Zeal for pubhc or private rites were carelessly jjractised, from '^^'"'^^"y- education and habit, by the followers of the established religion. But as often as they occurred, they afforded the christians an opportunity of declaring and confirm- ing their zealous opposition. By these frequent pro- testations their attachment to the faith was continually fortified; and in proportion to the increase of zeal, they combated with the more ardour and success in the holy war wiiich they had undertaken against the empire of the demons. II. The writings of Cicero^ represent in the most The IE SECOND lively colours the ignorance, the errors, and the unccr- '..i^'^';' tanity of the ancient philosoj)hers with regard to the trine of the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous of J,™ ^/'^llJ^ arming their disciples against the fear of death, they among the inculcate, as an obvious, though melancholy position, phersT that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases us from the calamities of life; and that those can no longer suffer who no longer exist. Yet there were a few sages of Greece and Rome who had conceived a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea of human nature ; though it must be confessed, that, in the sub- lime enquiry, their reason had been often guided by their imagination, and that their imagination had been prompted by their vanity. When they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers; when they exercised the various faculties of memory, of fancy, and of judgement, in the most profound specu- lations, or the most important labours ; and when they reflected on the desire of fame, which trans|K)rted them into future ages, far beyond the bounds of death and tise De Corona, long before he was engaged in the errors of the Mootanisls. See Memoires Ecclesiastiques, torn. iii. p. 384. De Senectute, and the Somnium Scipionis, contain, in the most beautiful language, every thing that Grecian philosophy, or Roman good sense, could possibly suggest on this dark but important subject. VOL. II. G
 * In particular, the first book of the J'uhculan Questions, and the treatise